Department Profile
In the year 1990 the Department of Botany and Forestry started its journey as a nontraditional department by including Forestry along with Botany in the course of post-graduate teaching and research. Consequently it has achieved something of worth mentioning. In the year 1997 the department ventured to offer M. Sc. course of study through Distance Mode of Education and since then it is running steadily. This pioneering step provided confidence and showed prospect to other streams of science to open the same in their respective fields.
The Department has carried out research projects so far with the financial assistance from different agencies like UGC, DBT, MoEF, WBDST, AICTE etc. The department also succeeded to achieve Special Assistance Programme (SAP) under the head of Departmental Research Scheme from UGC in the year 2011 and in 2017. An amount of rupees seventy five lakhs (including two scholars) and seventy lakhs (including one scholar) respectively has been sanctioned in the programme in Phase I and II. Department also received fund under DBT BOOST programme in the year 2017 totaling Rupees twenty five lakhs. Syllabus of M.Sc. course has been revised in CBCS mode recently. Semester mode of teaching includes: Class teaching, Laboratory Work, Project work, Field Study and Internal Assessment.
Department possesses some sophisticated instruments for researches like HPLC, HPTLC, Gel-Doc system, Cryomicrotome, Cold chamber, Rotary evaporator, high end microscopes etc.
Faculty members of the department are engaged in different fields of research such as:
Exploration of plant diversity of Jungalmahal, Chilkigarh heritage site and coastal areas. Yield enhancement of Cashew nut through bee keeping, work on mat grass; babui grass, hemiparasitic plants, dye yielding plants; endophytic microbial diversity study along with their useful metabolites; study of ethnomedicinal plants, sacred groves, algal diversity, bryoflora; exploration of fungal micro and macroflora etc.
The department offers special papers to M.Sc. students in different topics like:
- Angiosperms Taxonomy & Molecular Systematics
- Cytogenetics & Biotechnology
- Ecology & Biodiversity
- Microbiology: Basic and Applied
- Mycology & Plant Pathology
- Palaeobotany, Palynology & Plant Reproductive Biology
- Plant Physiology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology